Today we went to see the British Museum during the day and then headed over to the West End to see Les Miserables that night. I was really looking forward to seeing the British Museum, specifically the Egyptian exhibits. The museum is large, and so we were not able to see all of it, but we did see the Egyptian exhibits, which I loved, as well as the Rosetta Stone (but we couldn't get any pictures because it was swarmed with people). It's amazing to stand in front of something and realize it's 5,000 years old. I still can’t believe those items have survived Time for so long. We also saw the jewelry items (there was a name for this wing of the museum, and I’ve completely forgotten it), these cool tiny wooden carvings, and we went up to the print room as well. We were there for probably 3-4 hours. I’d like to go back someday and see the rest of it; I really enjoyed the exhibits. I was glad I had done some reading on the exhibits before we left though, and had some sort of idea of what I wanted to see. The museum is large enough where I would have felt kind of lost if we didn’t have some sort of game plan upon arrival. Here are some pictures of the exhibits:
We headed back to the hotel and stopped for an early dinner at a nearby pub. Food was one of the areas where we didn't spend a lot of money on during our trip. In London, we were lucky enough to have a grocery store across the street from our hotel, so we stopped there frequently for their take-away sandwiches and salads, and spent the rest of the time eating in pubs or local chain restaurants. This night I had fish and chips and mushy peas, and Hubby got another hamburger. The portions were very generous, and the food was good. We were definitely most impressed with the food at the pubs compared to any other place we ate while in London. Not only were the portions quite large, the prices were really reasonable as well.
Finally it was time to head to Les Miserables. I had really been looking forward to this as well. We found a site through TripAdvisor that has many 2 for 1 deals on attractions in London for those holding a valid train ticket. We had purchased a 7-day travelcard, which allowed us to use these offers, so we got one ticket for free, which was a great way to save on what otherwise would have been an expensive night out. The London theater scene also has a site that lets you research seats in all the theaters, so we used that site before purchasing and were glad we did--it was right on, and we had great seats.
And the performance--Wow. Hubby listed it as one of the highlights of his trip, if that says anything. The actor who played Jean Valjean had an amazing voice, and I have never seen an actress nail the character of the Madame Thenardier as did the woman in this production. I had considered many different plays, and was very glad we ended up selecting Les Miserables.
I'll post the last two days in London as soon as I can, and then I might take a break from this trip report to post about some of the things that have been going on in life.
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